Sarah and Keenan reached out to me through Wedding Wire well over a year in advance from their wedding date. They were booked at Bell Harbor International Center and using a nautical theme to bring the whole day together. They booked my day of coordination package with clean-up. Sarah and Keenan live in California, so it was important for them to have a coordinator that would help keep them on schedule with planning and have good communication with their vendors. They noticed in 3 months (December-February) of planning, the venue was not very responsive to them when they were trying to coordinate their rentals. Come the end of March, Sarah and Keenan received a phone call from the venue that no couple ever wants to receive, let alone 5 months before your wedding date. The venue they had selected, within the center, would no longer be available for their wedding date as the Port of Seattle and the cruise commissioner were moving up the remodel date. After trying to work with the venue on spicing up the new location, Sarah and Keenan decided to cut ties and find another venue.

Willows Lodge happened to have a cancellation a week prior on the date Keenan and Sarah needed, so plans were set to move their wedding to Woodinville. In the end, this venue ended up working out to be perfect venue and really fit Sarah and Kennan better. Sarah and Keenan are such sweet and vibrant people and compliment each other so well. Such jokesters they are! I met with Keenan at the venue when he was up for a visit in June to finalize the catering menu, but I didn't get a chance to meet Sarah until two days before the wedding. Most of our planning had been via email.

Switching your venue 5 months prior to your wedding can be very stressful, but with a great event manager at the venue, Jenn, re-planning went great. Since Sarah and Keenan had their other vendors in place, we had the time to concentrate on redesigning their theme and decor and planning out the venue set-up and food. Sarah and Keenan switched from a nautical theme to lavender and herbs with the lavender color being most prominent and enhanced with ivory, sage and gold.

Willows lodge does 2 events in a day. Sarah and Keenan had the afternoon slot which means our set-up didn't start until 3:00 pm with a 5:00 pm ceremony. Right at 3:00 pm the lodge started the room flip and my assistant and I worked right along side them with our set-up of flowers and decor. Set-up went on as scheduled. While setting up, pictures were taking place around the grounds. Willows Lodge is not only a beautiful place for a wedding, but a gorgeous place for photos. The guest table were set with an ivory tablecloth, gold charger, a lavender cookie at each place setting for a favor and a vase with lavender surrounded with votive candle holders and a table number. Out in the courtyard sat the guest book table, gift table and escort card table. The escort cards were handmade folded cards adorned with a sprig of lavender clipped on.

Sarah, Keenan and the bridal party were in hiding by 4:40 pm. During this down time, they signed the marriage license and Ketubah. The Ketubah was then taken out to be displayed during the ceremony. Sarah is Jewish and Kennan is Polynesian so it was very important that both of their religions/cultures be a part of their ceremony. The ceremony started at 5:00 pm and was a beautiful blend of both Sarah and Keenan. Following the ceremony, Sarah and Keenan went for some more photos while the guests enjoyed a cocktail hour and were encouraged to find their escort card to direct them to their table for the evening.

Once each guest had found their seat for the evening, Sarah and Keenan were introduced into the reception and went straight into their first dance as husband and wife. Following their first dance was the HaMotzi prayer and bread cutting, which lead into a buffet dinner. The HaMotzi bread was served to each guest to enjoy with their dinner.

Once each guest had made their way through the buffet a short slideshow was played which led into toasts. Toasts were given by four people, The matron of honor, best man, mother of the groom and father of the bride with a surprise toast from one of the groom's brothers. These toasts had the guests laughing and aahhhing over sentiment. Toasts turned into the cake cutting and the cake cutting turned into the father-daughter dance and a choreographed mother-son dance. Since incorporating each of their religions was a big focus of the night, Sarah and Keenan finished the traditional events of with a Hora and asked that all guests please join them on the dance floor, which I believe almost every person did! Once the Hora came to a close the dance floor opened and everyone had a great time dancing to great music. Around 9:30 pm; late night snacks of breakfast sandwiches and hash browns were brought out (on request of the groom). Come 11:00 pm, the guesst filtered out and the wedding of Mr. and Mrs. Morrison came to a close.

Thank you Sarah and Keenan for letting me be a part of your special day! I really enjoyed getting to know both of you!